Demolition starts on Jane Addams housing development

Tuesday

Plans to demolish Jane Addams Village were discussed for two years. A lawsuit that temporarily halted the project took months to settle.

Plans to demolish Jane Addams Village were discussed for two years. A lawsuit that temporarily halted the project took months to settle.

Monday, it took about 15 seconds to tear the first hole at the near southeast-side development. The 23-unit housing development — crime-ridden when it was occupied and the target of vandals since it’s been vacant — entered the last phase of its existence.

“To me, it’s a sunshiny day,” said Ald. Doug Mark, R-3.

The low-income housing development was named after Jane Addams, who graduated from the Rockford Female Seminary in 1881 and went on to found the Hull House in Chicago, one of the first settlement houses in the country. Addams won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931 for her work with the peace movement in the early 20th century.

Jane Addams VIllage was at the corner of College Avenue and Seminary Street for 35 years, but Rockford Housing Authority officials say the site had long outlived its usefulness. Housing complexes like Jane Addams don’t offer residents a good quality of life, said RHA Executive Director Steve Anderson.

The area will be turned into green space, with an eye toward possible redevelopment.

The Rockford Housing Authority planned to tear down the vacant units last summer, but plans were stopped by a federal lawsuit. A settlement reached in January calls for 77 new units of housing, which will mostly come in the form of Section 8 vouchers.

After a brief, rain- and snow-dampened ceremony, an excavator drove across a short stretch of parking lot and plowed into the side of a Division Street building. The two-story building, housing half a dozen apartments, quickly turned into a tangled mess.

Anderson said two to three buildings can be demolished a day. The entire complex should be down in two to three weeks.

Already, plans are under way for using the space this summer. The ORCHiD Third Union College Neighborhood Association is tentatively planning an Aug. 16 block party at the site.

The neighborhood group has long campaigned for the complex’s demolition, and members were jubilant Monday as the first buildings came down.

Sean F. Driscoll can be reached at 815-987-1410 or sdriscoll@rrstar.com.